http://www.islamonline.net/English/News/2003-04/04/article11.shtml

Iraqi Opposition Islamists Flock Home For Resistance

"With our blood and our souls, we shall redeem you" and "Bush, Bush, listen well, we all love Saddam Hussein," Iraqis cheered

By Abdul Raheem Ali, IOL Cairo Staff

CAIRO, April 4 (IslamOnline.net) - Scores of Iraqi opposition Islamists flocked back home to join hands in defending Iraq against the Anglo-American aggression that was unleashed on March 20, a leading figure of the main Iraqi Sunni opposition group told IslamOnline.net Friday, April 4.

"Many Iraqis, including non-Islamists, went back home from Jordan, Syria and Britain to defend the country," Iyad Al-Samara'y, the Iraqi Islamic Party politburo chief, said in a telephone interview with IslamOnline.net from London.

"Despite its firm opposition to the Iraqi regime, the party declared from the very beginning it stood against the U.S.-led aggression against our land and people," Samra'y stressed.

He called on all Iraqis as well as on Muslims in the world to act in unison against "the aggressors."

"What is happening now in Iraq is a real resistance to invading aggressors not only by the regime, but also by all people including migrants who decided to return to defend Iraq," Samra'y remarked.

The Iraqi Islamic Party was formed in 1961 to be one of the oldest parties in the country and it maintains good relations with the Islamic Shiite parties.

Unconfirmed reports suggested earlier that Mohammad Ahmed el-Rashid and Abdul Karim Zidan, two of the most prominent leaders of Iraq's Muslim Brotherhood, had returned to the country Iraq.

According to some Islamic sources, the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood group played a key role to improve ties between the Iraqi regime and the Muslim Brotherhood group in Iraq from conflict to joint struggle.

This helped crystallizing the position of the Iraqi Shiite groups which oppose the U.S.-led invasion and collaboration with the enemy.

Syria and Jordan also played a pivotal role in this respect, to the anger of the United States which thought Shiite and Sunni group would revolt against the regime with the beginning of war.

"Gravely" Harmful

Samara'y expressed conviction that the Anglo-American war would gravely harm Iraq contrary to claims touted by U.S. President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair that it would create a "free and democratic" Iraq.

"Fighting the aggressive infidels is an individual duty on every Muslim regardless of his opposition to the ruling regime," he asserted, urging all Arab and Islamic regimes to politically support Iraq against a " brutal aggression"

The Iraqi Islamic Party had earlier quit the so-called follow-up committee formed by the Iraqi opposition groups in the wake of their conference in London to probe post-Saddam Iraq.

"We asked for reviewing all of the previous positions in light of the supreme interests of Iraq, and declined to join any activities emerged out of the conference or of the follow-up committee" Samara'y said.

The statements came one day after Grand Ayatollah Sayyid Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's supreme Shiite scholar, denied a Fatwa, allegedly issued in his name, urging the country's Shiite community not to fight the U.S. and British invading armies.